Heroin problem hits too close to home

April 28, 2014

The number of heroin overdose deaths in West Virginia tripled between 2007 and 2012 from 22 to 67, according to the latest figures from the West Virginia Health Statistics Center. During that same five-year period, the number of fatalities caused by prescription pain pills declined for the first time in five years.

Those who monitor these statistics say more West Virginia residents, just like those in surrounding states, have turned to heroin because it is not only cheaper, but also often more potent than prescription painkillers.

Berkeley County had the highest number of heroin overdose deaths with 36 residents dying during the five-year period between 2007 and 2012. Cabell County - at the opposite end of the state - had the second-highest number of heroin-related overdose deaths with 26. Monongalia County was third with 15 fatalities during that five-year period and Kanawha County was fourth with 13 fatalities.

Delegate Don Perdue, D-Wayne, said the state's law enforcement crackdown on so-called "pill mills" - cash-only pain clinics that prescribe excessive amounts of painkillers - has led to more heroin abuse.

He said many drug users are "switching to heroin because they can't get pills anymore and they're so expensive ... it's sort of like an addict's euthanasia. They are switching to heroin and it's killing them."

Between 2011 and 2012, the number of heroin overdose deaths in this state jumped from 41 to 67 - an increase of 63 percent. The number of these deaths in 2013 will not be released until later this year. And while deaths from overdoses of heroin increased in West Virginia, the total number of overdose deaths from all drugs dropped from 656 deaths in 2011 to 588 deaths in 2012.

Overdose fatalities caused by the opiate painkiller known as oxymorphone dropped from 181 to 72. Oxycodone-related deaths decreased from 223 to 182. And overdose deaths caused by the painkiller hydrocodone plunged from 171 deaths to 142 in the same period.

But West Virginia's drug overdose death rate continues to be the highest in the United States. Perdue said this state's "younger people are looking for a more vivid high. They are looking for a change in reality that's more vivid than what marijuana can bring and that maybe OxyContin (oxycodone) can bring. An injectable drug like heroin offers that."

Unfortunately, members of the House of Delegates killed two bills that were intended to reduce this state's number of drug overdose deaths. One would have allowed police, firefighters and other emergency service personnel to administer a drug that counters the effect of heroin and pain-pill overdoses. The other would have created a Good Samaritan Law to protect people from arrest and prosecution on drug possession charges when they call 911 to report a drug overdose.

Meanwhile, Dr. Rahul Gupta, executive director of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, and Andrew Whelton, an environmental engineer, are both confident with their estimates that close to 100,000 people suffered some kind of negative health effect following a chemical leak and water contamination January 9 from a faulty storage tank on the Elk River.

The chemicals overwhelmed filters at the local water plant, contaminating tap water for some 300,000 people across a nine-county region over the course of several days. When the state Department of Health and Human Resources stopped collecting data in late January, 26 people had been admitted to hospitals and 533 treated in hospitals complaining of symptoms they believe were connected to the chemical leak.

However, both Gupta and Whelton believe many people suffered from symptoms that they did not believe were serious enough to require a trip to the hospital. Whelton, who is also leading a team of scientists researching other effects of the spill at the request of Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, said "simply relying on hospital records to predict the public health impacts may be extremely misleading."

After the spill, the U. S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention collected information from the medical charts of the applicable patients to determine if there was a connection. And the state is still waiting on that report.

Finally, the separation of church and state was tested again last week in Wood County when school officials removed a Bible verse from Parkersburg South High School's gymnasium and also from the school wrestling team's website. The team's use of Philippians 4:13 drew a complaint from the Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation.

Wood County Superintendent Pat Law told news outlets that the verse "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," which was painted above the doors to the wrestling room in the gym, has been removed there as well as from the wrestling team's website which linked to the school website. Patrick Elliott, the foundation's attorney, said public schools can't endorse religion.